Senate panel grills DCFS over child death data

'I don't trust anything they're saying,' one lawmaker says

December 11, 2013|By Christy Gutowski, Chicago Tribune reporter

Denise Gonzales, acting director of the Department of Children and Family Services, testifies Tuesday at a state Senate subcommittee hearing. She said revised DCFS data show 111 children died of abuse or neglect in the last fiscal year. (Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune)

Outraged over the torture death of an 8-year-old Chicago girl and a rising toll of child fatalities, an Illinois Senate panel questioned state officials who admitted Tuesday that their numbers in such cases were inaccurate.

The Tribune was the first to report last month that more children died of abuse and neglect in Illinois in the fiscal year that ended June 30 than in any year in the past three decades. There were 111 such deaths, with 10 more cases pending, the Department of Children and Family Services said at the time.

The Senate subcommittee hearing grew heated after Denise Gonzales, acting DCFS director, disclosed that the agency was wrong and that 104 children had died of maltreatment and another 11 cases were still under review.

Gonzales reported that 74 of the 104 deaths were related to neglect, with accidental suffocation — infants who died while sleeping with a parent, with a blanket or on their stomachs — the leading cause.

An increase in deaths was reported in those categories, which Gonzales said is likely due to the new way the agency investigates and classifies fatal suffocation — a point that did not satisfy committee member Sen. Mattie Hunter, D-Chicago.

"I don't trust anything they're saying right now," said Hunter, one of two senators who attended the session.

Hunter called for the resignation of Gonzales, who was appointed acting head of the troubled agency just three weeks ago.

After the three-hour hearing, Gonzales told reporters she has no plans to resign and is committed to improving the state's system of protecting children. She took over the job after Richard Calica announced he was resigning because of a terminal cancer diagnosis.

Gonzales said she has met with law enforcement officials such as Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to improve communication.

Gonzales was Calica's chief of staff for 18 months during an agency reorganization aimed at reducing investigator caseloads, trimming middle management and upgrading the state's child abuse hotline. Those areas were among shortcomings detailed by the Tribune.

Some of the death report inaccuracies occurred when the hotline received multiple reports on one child's death or when more than one perpetrator was found to have been involved, Gonzales said.

"Today, I can tell you I believe these numbers are accurate, but there's much, much more work to do," she said.

DCFS reports that 455 Illinois children have died of abuse or neglect in the past five years. Historically, DCFS has reported having prior involvement in about 25 percent of such fatalities. The agency said it had prior contact with the child in 27 of the 104 death cases in the last fiscal year.

Gonzales said an internal audit also showed that DCFS had made mistakes in each of the past five years. She provided data that showed that 19 child deaths weren't reported during that period.

Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Deerfield, said she convened Tuesday's hearing after reading a recent Tribune report about the July 12 killing of Gizzell Ford, 8. Her death will be counted in next fiscal year's total.

The newspaper disclosed that a DCFS investigator visited an apartment in Chicago's Austin neighborhood where the child was living barely a month before the straight-A student was found dead in conditions that police described as deplorable. Her father and paternal grandmother are facing murder charges.

Gizzell was brutalized for weeks, the newspaper found, despite her involvement in a child protection system that included judicial, medical and law enforcement oversight.

DCFS officials confirmed Tuesday the agency investigator did not do a home safety inspection list as required and now is facing possible discipline.